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On an unusually drizzly Dallas day, I was fortunate to spend 15 minutes with the very charming and witty director/writer of Moon. We talked about his new film, about being a paper hoarder (like me) and he laughed at all my comments. Hey – aren’t I supposed to chuckle at all his remarks? We also touched on being David Bowie’s son. Here’s an excerpt of our chat. It helps to read it with a British accent.

PopSyndicate: I promise I didn’t conjure up this weather to make you feel more at home.

Duncan Jones: (laughter) I got in yesterday from London and its okay, it does feel like home.

PS: I am a major science fiction fan!

DJ: Excellent!

PS: Growing up, I never missed an episode of the Twilight Zone - it’s one of my all-time favorite programs. Moon reminded me of that genre. Let’s get right down to the nitty-gritty – you know the questions folks ask at a film festival……I am aware that this is an independent production and thus made on a shoe-string budget.

DJ: It was about $5 million.

PS: (I register surprise) It doesn’t have the feel of a small budget film. Yes, the set is austere…….

DJ: Well, that’s what we were trying to achieve.  You’re right, it’s a small budget. Science fiction by its very nature is very difficult, I think, to achieve on a small budget. It’s the most expensive kind of filmmaking. But we made some decisions early on, that allowed us to make a film, which I think fulfilled the expectations of science fiction fans and because we have a great love for that particular period of science fiction of the 70’s and early 80’s, like Outland and Silent Running, we wanted to have an aesthetic which mirrored that.

PS: You handled the dilemma smartly. How do you make it look like a million bucks – or should I say 10 million, on a 5 million dollar budget? The base almost looked elegant. It looked like you blew ½ your budget on white paint.

DJ: (gales of laughter) We didn’t have to worry spending too much time dividing up the colors. You’re right. We tried to keep the set small and when I was writing the story, I knew that there needed to be a certain amount of variety visually where the scenes take place. And although we only had two main locations; the lunar exterior and the interior of the moon base, I wanted to make sure that at least within the moon base, the different areas of the base had very different looks and feels to them.

PS: And they did!

DJ: Thank you! It worked.

PS: What does GERTY (the Kevin Spacey voiced computer) stand for?

DJ: (a hearty laugh) Oh goodness! I can’t remember exactly!

PS: I thought the letters would stand for something clever or significant to the story…

DJ: There is an acronym for it, but I can’t remember what it all is. All I know is that the “r” stands for “robotic,” but I can’t remember the rest of it.

PS: Kevin Spacey had the perfect voice for the “Hal-ish” computer. Did you have him in mind when you wrote it? 

DJ: Absolutely! We were very fortunate to get to Kevin Spacey back when we had the script and hadn’t started production yet. He got a chance to read the script and was very interested in it, but also very conscious of just what a challenge it was – what we were trying to achieve. He had an idea of what the budget was going to be and said, “I don’t know how you’re going to do this. Why don’t you come back to me when you’ve made the film and we can see how it turned out.”

PS: So, is that what you did?

DJ: That’s what we did. We made the film without him and we had a rough cut with some very basic special effects in it, but he was so blown away by Sam’s performance. Sam’s performance really overwhelmed him and he said, “Absolutely!”

PS: Did he rehearse by listening to HAL tapes? 

DJ: I don’t think he did actually. I think he was hard at work at rehearsals at the Old Vic (Theatre). But he was incredibly professional. He came into the recording session; asked me what I wanted and I told him. For me it was quite a big deal – he’s such a well-known actor and I told him that I thought we could try it like this. And he would do it like that. And then we tried it a different way. And then we basically laid his audio on top of the temp audio which I had done. (laughter) It wasn’t so good (he said in a mock falsetto voice). This one was not going on the DVD! But we tried a few versions out and we found one which we really felt was right, the right cadence and a sensibility for what GERTY would be like. And it worked out really well. It was actually quite a fast process with Kevin Spacey.

PS: Was he able to record in a manner of days?

DJ: To be honest, the voice recording was done in less then a day.

PS: Wow! So, did he show up in jeans?

DJ: Showed in jeans with a little dog, just hang out, watched bits of the film and then go into the booth and record lines.

PS: He has a very mellifluous voice, very smooth.

DJ: The reason I wanted him is because we pay homage and reflect on science fiction from the past, one of which is obviously HAL from 2001. And I wanted, knowing that was going to be the case, consciously doing that, I wanted to make the audiences expectations of what GERTY would be and make that work for us. So get them to expect a certain thing and then to subtly change it. Which is what I think Kevin Spacey’s voice helped us do, cause it’s a soothing voice – but its also got this slightly malevolent quality. It’s a little too slick, a little too smooth sometimes. Which was perfect. The audience expects something of GERTY and we changed the direction of it.

PS: He was spot-on perfect!

DJ: I’m glad it worked!

PS: As was Sam Rockwell. I think he’s grossly under recognized and underutilized.

DJ: He was fantastic! First of all he’s an amazingly nice guy. Have you had the chance to interview him?

PS: No (I say with a grumble).

DJ: I really, really get on very well with him. Because he was on his own for most of the film, we spent a lot of time just talking and we got on very well. We’re both only kids and we had a lot to talk about.

PS: (Without giving too much away) It must have been difficult to integrate the two Sam’s.

DJ: Yes!

PS: I can’t imagine how that was done – so technically perfect. I looked for flaws, but didn’t see any. It was seamless.

DJ: Thank you. Hopefully, you were watching the story a little bit too. We got away with a few things. We watched the Criterion edition of Dead Ringers on DVD.

PS: Ah, Jeremy Irons.

DJ: The DVD has a whole section of how they did the effects. Sam and I were both watching that for a long time before we started shooting, breaking it down and working out what they did and what we could do better. Hoped we could do better. I was very fortunate. I had the chance to talk to Spike Jonze who did Adaptation, where Nicolas Cage plays twins. I talked to Spike a little bit on how they achieved that effect. So between the Criterion DVD and Spike, I had a pretty good idea what had been done before and where maybe we could improve things. And we did some physical interaction stuff where one Sam puts his hand on the other Sam’s shoulder, which nobody had really done before. I’m very proud! As an indie film, to be able to push technical boundaries I think was something I’m very happy with and proud of.

PS: So this is your writing and directorial debut?

DJ: I guess that’s correct. It’s certainly my directing debut. And the debut of something I’ve written that’s been made. But I’ve written a couple of other scripts which hopefully I’ll make in the future.

PS: Well, that’s quite an auspicious beginning. What’s your background? How did you get interested in filmmaking?

DJ: I went to college in Ohio and I studied philosophy. Graduate school in Tennessee at Vanderbilt studying philosophy again.

PS: That shows in your writing. Tell me about the title, Moon . It almost follows along the lines of the rest of the film, clean, austere…..

DJ: Straight to the point really, isn’t it? If you’re going to make a science fiction film, and we were trying to make a science fiction film which again reflected what Sam and I loved, the ones from the 70’s and 80’s, we wanted it to be about something that was relevant and that the audience could relate to. That’s both in the story – about a guy who is forced to face himself – and also just literally the location. The moon. It’s about as obvious a place for a science fiction film there you can get. The thing that you see every night in the sky; it remains mysterious, even though we’ve had a cultural association with the moon, since culture began.

PS: For the last question……You had the built-in song reference for Major Tom, I assume. I want to know why you didn’t name Sam, Tom?

DJ: (another very hearty laugh) I couldn’t get the rights.  Also, I’ve spent an awfully long time – I’m 38 – trying to build a career on my own merits. As much as I love and respect my father, who I see all the time, I want to try and make my own way in the world if I can. He’s been very generous in giving me the opportunity to make my own way.

PS: I waited two hours to hear the opening notes of Space Oddity.

DJ: (more hearty laughter) I am so sorry! You gotta admit though, Clint Mansell – not a bad second choice. He’s the guy who did Requiem for a Dream – an amazing, amazing performance.

PS: Yes, It was wonderful! I wish you well with Moon and I hope we’ll be seeing more of your films hit the big screen. And I hope the weather clears up too!

Read the Pop Syndicate review of Moon.

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